Mark Robins disappointed Coventry did not go on and secure victory

Posted Sunday, October 08, 2023 by PA

Mark Robins admitted his disappointment as Coventry salvaged a point against Norwich with a 1-1 draw at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Ben Gibson’s 88th-minute own goal handed the Sky Blues a point and maintained their unbeaten home start to the season after Jonathan Rowe poked in his sixth of the season before half time.

The Sky Blues had chances to take all three points after Milan van Ewijk and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto had chances to steal all three points in added time.

Robins explained: “We deserved a point very much so, but I think we can be a little bit disappointed that we didn’t go on and win it.

“During the game that’s the first time we feel that we’ve been able to have any sort of meaningful possession, and even though we went behind we knew we were in the game.

“We got in at half-time at 1-0 and we knew we were in the game, well in it. The fact that we were shows that there’s been a significant step forward been taken.

“The fact that we ended up pinning them in for large parts of the second half and especially at the end, when I made the changes, I think that had a benefit because it re-energised us, which was really important.

“The ball into the penalty area for the own goal, the quality on the ball meant that Gibson had to head it and thankfully it hit the back of the net.

“It keeps our unbeaten record at home intact and that’s huge. This point is a big point on the back of the two previous wins, so seven points from three games is really good and we can look forward to building, and hopefully we can start to get a few players back now and hopefully things will start to look a little bit better after the international break.”

Norwich manager David Wagner rued the missed chances that could have seen his side double their lead in the second half as he reflected on a hard-fought point on the road following three consecutive away defeats.

“The result is because we conceded so late, even if I can say I think it was a fair result.” said the former Huddersfield boss. “I was very pleased with how the players execute our idea, to give Coventry a little bit possession, make sure we defend from a low block and be a threat on the transition.

“I think it worked, they put in a real shift. Obviously, you have to defend your crosses and you have to have some blocks but there were no real big chances which I’ve seen over a long period.

“We scored a great counter press goal and had two further golden opportunities from Adam Idah and Liam Gibbs where we have to kill the game, especially in the second half where we had this period of 25-30 minutes where we were very comfortable on the ball, there we have to kill the game and this is unfortunately what we haven’t done.

“If you defend crosses then always a mistake can happen what happened and then you concede a goal and obviously the feeling is totally different even if you have done exactly the same game, exactly the same performance because the outcome is different, but I was pleased with the effort, with the togetherness, with the commitment, it was a hard fought point which they deserved.”